The Fame Game

For all the art-loving Bravo addicts out there, Artinfo is doing exit interviews with Work of Art’s weekly losers. Like most recent Bravo shows, Work of Art is a big slice of guilty of pleasure, whose layers feature a touch of cultural zeitgeist, a healthy helping of pure spectacle and a thick coating of delicious despicability. In Artinfo’s Q&A, the lastest artist to get the boot (Trung Nygu-yen), challenges art worlders who are in a huff over the series to stop hating.

I know there are a lot of other artists and professionals and colleagues in the art world talking the show down and stuff, but if someone asked you to do the show, would you do it? It’s that kind of thing. Well, you have this great opportunity to experience this, why wouldn’t you do it? It’s the difference between living an active life and living a passive life. So I always go for the route of active.

Not sure that Nygu-yen’s gonna change anyone’s mind about the show with his active vs. passive argument. Perhaps a better tack to take is that it’s not like fame-mongering is something new for the art world, so why not just sit back and enjoy the show.